Advance sale of train, BRTC bus tickets start

Bangladesh Railways (BR) and Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) on Sunday morning started selling advance tickets of trains and buses ahead of the Holy Eid-ul-Fitr to facilitate homebound Eid passengers to reach their destinations ahead of the greatest religious festival of Muslims. In the capital, the advance train tickets are available at Kamalapur Railway Station since 9:00am today while BRTC bus tickets in the stations and ticket counters or booths of the state owned road transport corporation in Dhaka and Chittagong. At Kamalaur, several thousand people gathered at the station and stood in queues since early morning to collect the tickets for their respective destinatins. Meanwhile, Kamrul Ahsan, divisional railway (Dhaka) manger of BR, said tickets will not be sold at other stations in the city. Today, holidaymakers are collecting the tickets of July 24. And the tickets of July 25, 26, 27 and 28 will be sold on July 21, 22, 23 and 24 respectively at Kamalapur and other stations across the country from 9:00am each day, he said. Each passenger can buy a maximum of four tickets. Around 18,000 advance tickets of intercity trains from Dhaka to different destinations will be sold daily. Tickets of different local and mail trains will be sold later, officials of the BR expect. A total of 64 regular trains will be operated daily from Dhaka. Additionally, three pairs of special intercity trains will be operated from Dhaka to Dewanganj of Mymensingh, Parbatipur of Dinajpur, and Khulna to cope with the Eid rush. Passengers will also be able to buy ticket through online, the BR officials said. Besides, return tickets of July 31, August 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be sold on July 27, 28, 29, 30 and 31 at outer districts. Meanwhile, advance sale of BRTC bus tickets for different destinations from Dhaka and Chittagong has started at different BRTC bus stations/depots and ticket counters in the two cities this morning, according to a news agency.